Government
Does Paying Food-Stamp Recipients to Eat Healthier Fare Work?
People in underserved communities want better food. They just can't afford it.
On a brisk fall day, 40-year-old Amelia Ojendis boarded the subway to travel across the District to buy vegetables. Clad in a winter hat and puffy coat, she clutched paper coupons and wound her way through the stalls of the farmers market.
She used the coupons to buy two bags of fresh produce like broccoli and zucchini—food that has helped to make her family healthier, she says, especially her kids ages 16, 12, 10, and 2. "It actually helped lower their weight," she explains in Spanish, as her 12-year-old daughter translates.